And...I'm moved. The place is a shambles because nothing's unpacked but at least it's all here and the move went alright.
I had a pretty quiet New Year's eve this year, just hanging out at Chris's place with a 5 or 6 people. We played some Wii, and generally relaxed. This was good because I was tired from all the Christmas stuff and also tired in anticipation of all the moving stuff so I really didn't want to go running around the city all night.
Mike's been in Toronto for the last couple days as well so I've been able to hang out with him a bunch (obviously going to Spring Rolls more than once). We also went to a Korean BBQ place that was pretty awesome.
Finally I'm almost done packing for the move, it's pretty exciting!!
I'm back in Toronto now, and I've moved the first few things into the new place already! Mostly Kim's stuff that I took back with me, but my brand new "Toastess" toaster was also moved in (it has a countdown timer to tell you how long until the toast is done!).
I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed today with all the stuff to do, so instead of thinking about it or worrying I'm going to eat some chocolate, then meet up with Mike for some supper at Spring Rolls. This evening I intend to watch "Snakes on a Plane" with Matt, as I won it in one of those crazy gift stealing game things last night.
I went out "Boxing Day" shopping today, although not specifically for sales, just for stuff I need. I picked up a bunch of Rubbermaid bins for moving/storage. I'll be using normal cardboard boxes as well but last time I moved I decided I wanted to get some bins that could double as storage and didn't need to be gotten rid of after the move was done. I also picked up Season 2 of The Office and Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. Finally I got a new pair of jeans and a nice button shirt from RW&Co.
I'm currently downloading the TV show "30 Rock" as I've heard it is the closest thing to Arrested Development (in terms of quality, not the same plot) on TV today. Not that anything could replace Arrested Development ever because it's so awesome, but it's always nice to see something new that might be almost as awesome.
My mom's making Sheppard's Pie for supper tonight out of leftover mashed potatoes. Mmmm...can't wait!
It was a good Christmas this year, with lots of visiting and much chocolate/presents. I was pretty happy with everything that I got for people and found that the happiness I got from successfully getting good gifts was more than what I got from the gifts I received. Isn't that heart-warming or something?
I have a bunch of gift certificates to spend so I'm going out tomorrow to do so. High on my list is the Office on DVD, but I'd also like some new clothes and I have to get some Rubbermaid bins for moving. Yes the move is coming, and it looks like it will be pretty easy. I guess that happens when you move down the block.
I have a serious list of New Year's resolutions this year, although it's not so much inspired by the new year as it is by the fact that I'm moving and becoming even more "adult" than I was before. I'm going to go to the gym more (mostly with Kim so that we can encourage each other). I'm not doing it to get healthier or anything though; I want to improve my strength specifically to get better at climbing. I also want to spend some time on recreational programming specifically my ray tracer (yes, laugh at me because I say that all the time). Finally, I am going to blog more often. This time I have some motivation for this. My Aunt Joan reads the blog and expressed great disappointment at my lack of blogging at dinner this Christmas. As I have the utmost respect for her, I cannot let this disappointment stand. So I must blog more often. :)
I don't even really remember much of what's happened since whenever I blogged last so I'm not going to attempt to reconstruct it. I think it's safe to assume it involved climbing, going to restaurants and some trips to the market.
I did buy some stuff recently, including Guitar Hero 3, the new Futurama movie: Bender's Big Score, and Ratatouille on DVD. Plus a bunch of Christmas presents for various people (no, I'm not telling).
I think the biggest expenditure this month though was the deposit on my new apartment! Kim was able to get a new job in Toronto so she's moving here in January. We were going to just stay in my current place with Matt for a bit but I started looking at Craigslist and found a suitable place nearby so I snapped it up. I think it's better that we'll have our own place right away, as it means we can get started on being real people sooner, whatever that means. Anyway, I'm quite looking forward to it, although as always I'm dreading the prospect of actually moving (co-op made me hate it so much).
After almost 3 weeks with no climbing I'm out of shape. Tonight was rough, but I'm going to make up for it by climbing on Friday and Sunday of this week as well. The trip back from gym tonight would have been better if the weather was either warmer or dryer. Stupid cold rain. My fancy birthday green tea+jasmine is making it better though.
Last night we went to Cafe Polonez for wing night which is Rob's favourite Polish restaurant. I was definitely impressed. I had the pork goulash on a potato pancake with a random, high-value Polish beer (strong, large, cheap -- 6%, 500mL, $4.50). The food was amazing. I got to try a pierogie as well and it was excellent as expected. There were so many other things on the menu I want to try, so I'm definitely going back.
I visited Kim this weekend at her apartment in Ilderton and it was a nice relaxing time after my busy trip to San Francisco. She had to work on Saturday so I slept in and spent most of the day writing up my journal for the trip. I didn't quite finish before she got home, but I got close enough to finish it on the train back to Toronto today, so take a look if you're interested. Saturday night we had a good meal out with dessert at William's.
Today I visited with my mom for a bit and she made me some yummy apple crisp. Mmm...apple crisp.
I want to buy a bunch more games but I haven't really had the chance to play the ones I've already bought so I feel a bit weird buying more. In particular I want Guitar Hero 3, because it's awesome.
I got back from San Francisco late Tuesday night and I must say it was an excellent trip. I had a great time seeing the sights, visiting ILM and chilling with Mike. I'll be adding details and lots of photos to the Trips section of the site, hopefully this weekend.
Last night Matt and I attended the second Tafelmusik concert of the subscription we got. I enjoyed it thoroughly and I found that because I knew what to expect in terms of size and content I was able to enjoy the music more this time. The only strange part was that in the second last movement of the final piece the man in front of us turned around and in an angry voice told Matt to "please stop doing that!!" As far as I could tell Matt was sitting perfectly still and not making any noise. The people behind us also could not figure out what the problem was. We never found out either because the guy left very quickly at the end.
I failed to blog for two weeks once again, but this time I'm going to say it's because I was busy preparing for my trip. The trip I'm on right now! Yes, I'm in San Francisco and it's pretty awesome. I visited ILM today and wandered around downtown a bunch and I'm meeting up with Mike in a few minutes to head to what sounds like a really awesome party. Good times! I'm keeping notes again, so when I get home I'll add a new section to my trips page and fill in all the details with pictures and stuff.
Two weekends ago I went climbing in John's new cave to celebrate his acquisition of holds for the roof. It was pretty fun and we took a video of me completing the "first successful traverse." I was going to put it on YouTube or something to make it a bit more manageable for those with "lesser" Internet, but I'm pretty lazy so I just uploaded the full uncompressed video to our server. Download it if you like, but be warned it's 124MB. I love having well over 200GB of web space to play with.
